Community & Economic Development Resource Guide

TREATISES / PRINT MATERIALS

STATUTES:

ONLINE RESOURCES

  • Connecticut Land Records: This website website provides a useful consolidation of links to various towns’ online land records portals. Since land records are maintained by each town, there is no single database from which to search. This page makes it convenient to find the correct online portal for the town you need.

  • New Haven Land Records: New Haven uses a third party vendor, Info Quick Solutions, Inc., for land records. You can search the public records at the link below. If that link doesn’t work go to Info Quick Solutions and click on New Haven from that page).

  • CT Law Library Research Guides, compiled by the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Library Services. This link has a list of research guides on a number of topics relating to property law, from abandoned/lost property, to foreclosure, to spousal property, and repossessions. Click the above link, and then expand the “Property Law Research Guides” menu to see links to specific guides.

  • Land Use Law Research Guide. Compiled by Georgetown Law Library, this guide provides useful links for researching land use law. The “Secondary Sources” tab along the menu on the left of the page has links to a number of land use law treatises, which you can then search for in MORRIS. Many of the resources here also indicate whether they are available on Westlaw or Lexis.

CONNECTICUT AFFORDABLE HOUSING / 8-30g RESOURCES:

  • Affordable Housing Appeals Listing, maintained by the Connecticut Department of Housing. The Affordable Housing Appeals Listing is maintained pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. 8-30g(k), and lists the percentage of housing in each CT town and municipality that is affordable (as defined by 8-30g).

  • Report of the Blue Ribbon Commission to Study Affordable Housing (2000). This is the second of two Blue Ribbon Commission Reports on the state of affordable housing in Connecticut. This report’s findings underpinned the reforms to Connecticut’s affordable housing law, 8-30g, in the early 2000s.

  • Issue Brief on CGS 8-30g, a quick two-page primer on the Affordable Housing Appeals list prepared by the Office of Legislative Research, current as of September 2017.

OTHER FAIR HOUSING RESOURCES:

  • Student Project: Fair Housing Act and Racism, available through Pace Law School Library. This guide contains links to statutory, case law, and secondary sources relating to the Fair Housing Act and race. Pace is in New York, though, so there may not be Connecticut-specific resources here.

  • Poverty Law Research Guide – Housing, available through Georgetown Law Library. This guide covers issues related to poverty, but includes a section on Housing Law. It links to various organizations (including HUD, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and others) and lists a few academic journals that may relate to a given topic in low income housing.

FORMS / PRACTICAL HELP

  • Residential Foreclosure Checklist (CT) (Brian D. Rich, Peter R. Meggers), available on Westlaw.

  • Real Estate Leasing: Connecticut (John R. Mallin), available on Westlaw.

  • Real Estate Ownership: Connecticut (John R. Mallin), available on Westlaw.

  • Notice of Termination of Rental Agreement – Failure to Comply with Obligations (Connecticut Practice Series), available on Westlaw.

    • More broadly, the Connecticut Practice Series is a good resource. Chapter 7 of this resource contains a number of forms for Property law, albeit these forms tend to be more helpful for litigation.

  • Real Estate Closing Due Diligence Searches: In connection with a closing, you may find it necessary to perform City due diligence searches. This requires you to enter any City agency which may have an outstanding complaint on a property and ask for the history of the address. I usually tell them that I am working with a developer in connection with a real estate deal, and I would like any information they have on the address. Copies cost a few cents per page in cash.

General Corporate Law Resources

  • GuideStar:

    • Free resource—just create free account to access.

    • Access tons of information (particularly tax filings) on most nonprofit organizations.

  • LexisNexis → Business & Corporate Law → All Business & Corporate Law Forms

    • Useful forms, though may need to be adjusted to fit needs of a nonprofit entity.

    • Use advanced search feature.

  • LexisNexis → Business & Corporate Law → All Business & Corporate Law Treatises, Practice Guides & Jurisprudence → New York Nonprofit Law & Practice

    • New York-focused, but includes generally applicable and helpful information on laws pertaining to nonprofit entities.

    • Includes sample organizational documents and checklists.

  • Practical Law (accessible via Westlaw) → Corporate & M&A → Charitable Fundraising: Overview

    • Helpful, streamlined guide to key legal considerations in charitable fundraising.

  • Bloomberg Law → Practical Guidance → Forms

    • Best source of general corporate and commercial law form agreements.

  • Bloomberg Law → Practical Guidance → Other Guidance

    • Tons of helpful information for structuring transactions.

    • Checklists, closing checklists, drafting guides.

Connecticut Corporate Law & Connecticut Nonstock Corporation Law

  • Connecticut General Statutes, Title 33, Chapter 602.

    • Free version of Connecticut General Statutes (link is directly to nonstock corporation chapter), updated through January 1, 2015.

    • Easy to view. Can be an easier starting point than the Connecticut Searchable Statutes feature (linked below).

    • However, important to check for any updates to statute via Connecticut Searchable Statutes, updated through January 1, 2018.

  • Connecticut Office of Attorney General.

    • The Connecticut Attorney General regulates many industries in Connecticut. Website provides helpful information about the CT AG’s regulations.

    • Keyword search function.

  • Connecticut Office of Secretary of the State.

    • Business Services

      • Links to: forms & fees; business search; UCC filing search; trademark search; frequently asked questions.

      • Helpful general information about Connecticut business law.

    • Business entity search

  • A Practical Guide to Organizing a Business in Connecticut (MCLE) (accessible via LexisNexis)

    • Very useful guide to forming a Connecticut business entity, Connecticut tax issues, and Connecticut law relating to significant transactions, including mergers and acquisitions of business entities or assets.

  • Forms from Commercial Law and Practice Guide (accessible via LexisNexis – Connecticut → All Connecticut Forms)

    • Forms organized by form type.

    • Some potentially helpful forms include an equipment lease agreement and financing agreements.

  • Practical Law (accessible via Westlaw) → Corporate & M&A → filter by jurisdiction (CT) → Corporation Law: Connecticut

    • Easy-to-read, streamlined guide to Connecticut corporation law.

    • Includes primer on fiduciary duties, mergers, asset sales, dissolutions, amendments to organizational documents.

  • Westlaw → Connecticut → Secondary Sources → Connecticut Bar Journal

    • Often has helpful articles on Connecticut commercial, corporate, and nonprofit law.

    • Use advanced search feature.

  • Westlaw → Form Finder → Connecticut Form Finder → Connecticut Corporations Form Finder

    • Use advanced search feature to find Connecticut-specific form contracts.

Books

The library has many useful books on various nonprofit tax subjects (e.g., books on 1023, tax audits, UBIT, etc.) The following list includes several useful guides that cover the law of tax-exempt organizations in general.

 

Online

  • Bloomberg Tax (particularly BNA portfolios)

  • Checkpoint

    • This is considered the best search engine for tax law. Due to the limited subscription in the library, this will be most useful for finding cases and rulings that cite to specific code sections.

    • It is designed differently than most search engines; therefore, a quick tutorial from a librarian may be helpful.

  • Google (is amazing).

  • Lexis Practice Advisor (of limited value. The same applies for WestLaw)

  • Internal Revenue Manuals (particularly 7.20 - 7.27).

    • The IRM is compiled for use by IRS personal. It is a great place to start searching for cases and rulings on point.

  • GuideStar

    • On Guidestar, you can search for almost any tax-exempt organization and view their filings. This is helpful for finding similar organizations to the one you may be working on.

    • GuideStar is a free resource, available with a free account.

Tax Authorities (see also Understanding IRS Guidance – A Brief Primer)

  • Internal Revenue Code

    • I.R.C. sections, like any other federal statute, are laws passed by Congress and are applicable nationwide.

  • Treasury Regulations

    • The Treasury Department promulgates regulations under 26 C.F.R. that interpret the law. Regulations often present a clearer, though longer, explanation of what the law is (according to the IRS).

    • Regulations may also be issued as final, temporary, or proposed regulations. Final regulations have undergone notice and comment and are issued as Treasury Decisions with a T.D. prefix. Temporary regulations differ in that they must expire within three years. Proposed regulations have not gone through notice and comment and have no more weight than a position espoused in a brief, according to a tax court case.

  • Judicial Opinions

    • Like all other areas of the law, if the Supreme Court says so then it is so. Its decisions are the law until or unless Congress later changes the law with subsequent new legislation. There are three trial courts that decide tax issues: the U.S. Tax Court, U.S. district courts, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Tax court and district court decisions are appealed to the court of appeals for the taxpayer’s geographical residence while Court of Federal Claims cases are appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

    • A Tax Court Memorandum (TCM) is an opinion of the tax court that is not officially published but is available from commercial publishers. As unofficial publications TCMs are not supposed to have precedential value nor are they supposed to be cited. TCMs are deemed to be unofficial decisions not worthy of official publication because the issue decided is considered well settled.

    • It is the policy of the tax court to not cite TCMs in official "regular" opinions (a published opinion written by one tax court judge that represents the ruling of the entire court) or "reviewed" opinions (a published opinion that is reviewed by all the judges of the tax court) since TCMs are not supposed to have precedential value. However, despite this policy, tax court opinions do sometimes cite TCMs.

  • Public Guidance from the Office of Chief Council

    • Revenue Rulings and Revenue Procedures. Revenue Rulings apply the tax laws to a hypothetical fact pattern; these rulings are basically examples. If your factual situation is substantially the same as the one in the Revenue Ruling, you can be fairly confident in relying on the legal outcome stated in the Revenue Ruling. At the very least, reliance on the applicable Revenue Ruling will prevent penalties. Revenue Rulings may be cited by taxpayers. Revenue Procedures provide guidance on IRS practice and procedural matters. Again, Revenue Rulings and Procedures do not undergo notice and comment and fall below final and temporary regulations in the pecking order.

  • Case-Specific Guidance from Office of Chief Council

    • Private Letter Rulings (PLR). PLRs are in effect advance rulings the national office of the IRS will sometimes give to an inquiring taxpayer. The IRS applies the law, as it sees it, to the facts and responds in writing with its proposed tax treatment. However, the IRS is not bound to follow its own ruling unless the PLR is coupled with a closing agreement and the taxpayer’s actual facts are as set forth in the PLR. In any case, no other taxpayer may rely on the PLR, only the taxpayer for whom the PLR was issued. PLRs can, however, give other taxpayers an indication of the IRS’s thinking on a particular fact pattern. PLRs cannot be cited by taxpayers. However, it is common practice for PLRs to be cited in a request for a PLR from the IRS (from personal experience).

    • Technical Advice Memorandum (TAM). TAMs are similar to PLRs in that a fact pattern is submitted to the IRS’s national office for a ruling on what the tax treatment should be under the facts submitted. Unlike a PLR, which is submitted by a taxpayer, TAMs are submitted by an IRS district director who has a question arising from tax return audits. TAMs do not have precedential value for taxpayers, although the district director is bound by the advice.

    • Field Service Advice (FSA). FSAs, similar to Tams, are taxpayer-specific rulings. FSAs are case specific advice provided to examiners by the Associate Chief Counsel. FSAs does not represent a final determination of the IRS’s position, even in the case for which it was requested. FSAs do not have precedential value for taxpayers, although they provide an indication of the IRS’s thinking on a particular fact pattern. The IRS has phased out FSAs.

    • General Counsel Memorandum (GCM). GCMs are issued by the Office of Chief Counsel and provide the reasoning behind revenue rulings, letter rulings, and technical advice memoranda. GCMs do not have precedential value.

(Schoolhouse Rock: I'm Just a Bill )

Federal

Federal Statutory Research

Federal Legislative History

  • Congress.gov

    • Comprehensive source for congressional activities. Allows you to search by subject area to find pending bills relating to certain policy issue and search by Legislator to see who gets what done and how they vote on diff issues. Tracker demonstrates how far the bill has moved in Congress. Allows you to see different versions of a law.

  • Govtrack.us

    • Provides profiles of current representatives and Senators; shows where they fit on political spectrum; leadership score; committee membership; legislation sponsored and enacted.

  • Proquest Legislative Insight

    • Easiest tool for legislative history (conference reports, floor statements, etc.). Useful for legislative intent/history. Many ways to search:

    • Search by many different types of bill numbers, etc.

    • Search by popular name from the search bar

    • Search by subject terms

    • Boolean search

    • Contains committee reports; most recent report is starred and should (in theory) contain all previous reports.If there was a conference committee, generally that should be the last conference report. Allows you to conduct text searches within congressional documents, i.e. “fair use” and parody.

  • Proquest Congressional

    • More complete tool for legislative history. Better than WestLaw/Lexis equivalents. Can look up witness testimony; hearing transcripts. Can look up legislative and executive publications. Can change document types on the left side. Can search congressional testimony, i.e. “witness” & “Romney” and “Fair Housing.”

  • WorldCat (for legislative histories)

    • Su: “legislative histories” → This turns up resources that compile legislative histories

    • Su: “legislative histories” and “administrative procedure act”

Federal Regulatory Research

  • Code of Federal Regulations

    • Once adopted, federal regulations are codified here. Sorted by theme; online at GPO website. Regs sorted into 50 titles; generally by promulgating agency.

  • [Electronic] Code of Federal Regulations

    • Great Admin resource. Can do Boolean searching. Agency Table – Match enabling statutes to admin agencies.

  • Federal Register

    • Essentially the ‘official daily newspaper’ of federal admin agencies. Proposed agency rules are published here. Updated every morning and much faster than in Westlaw or Lexis.

  • Regulations.gov

    • Useful during notice & comment → allows you to track / read others’ official comments, or comment yourself.

  • Reginfo.gov

    • Info about recent executive orders

State

Local

  • Board of Alders: The Board of Alders publishes meeting schedules, agendas, and minutes on Legistar. If you need any information you cannot find online, you should also feel free to call the Director of Legislative Services Al Lucas ((203) 946-8371).

  • Board of Alders Committees: Most of the real Board of Alders work occurs before committees. For example, any legislation must pass the Legislation Committee before the Board of Alders can vote on the legislation. The committee meeting schedule and members of each committee are available on the website.

  • The Municipal Code: The New Haven Code of Ordinances and Zoning Code are hosted online at. The site has a helpful search function. It also can show recent changes, pending amendments, and previous versions. You can download a section of the code as a Microsoft Word document by clicking on that section.

  • CT Secretary of State Forms: Forms utilized to form a business in Connecticut, including stock and non-stock corporations, LLCs, and LLPs.

  • Orrick Startup Forms Library: Legal forms in six categories: corporate formation documents, founders' stock purchase documents, director and officer-related documents, employment and consultant documents, technology-related documents, and equity compensation documents.

  • Cooley GO: Diverse startup-related documents.

  • Westlaw Form Finder: Legal, business and transactional forms, checklists, contracts and clauses.

  • Lexis Practice Advisor: Collection of forms and model documents that offer drafting notes and alternate clauses.

  • ICA Model Cooperative Bylaws: Models bylaws for worker cooperatives by a group producing resources for worker cooperative and democratic firms.